Black Hybrid
by InvisibleJediMaster
Summary: FINISHED! Word has a new dark pawn who can transform among human and dragon forms. Dragon Booster frees her from the black control gear and Word is willing to do anything to have her back and start a DragonHuman war. PREVIEW OF NEXT STORY!
1. Prologue: Capture

I was running through the ruins with my dragon, black draconium coursing through me.

I used to be human, but had been forced to drink black draconium, and it was changing me. It had tainted my blood. My appearance is only slightly altered, but the muscles, organs, even bones in me had changed. I had become part dragon, which was the reason I could run alongside him with ease when a normal human could not.

The ruler of the city was watching me, seeing how I took to the draconium. I knew that my body's unusual reaction would provoke experimentation. The sudden appearance of professional fighting dragons behind me made my hypothesis certain as they herded my dragon and me toward a tower rising above the ruins.

We tried splitting up, but more appeared and it was like we had our own escort. An escort that led to our doom. We were forced through the tower entry way and the fighter dragons circled around as guards.

The two of us looked around the tower, but saw nothing unusual. There was dust that had lain undisturbed and our footprints were clearly visible, dark against the floor.

There was a clang somewhere high above us and we looked up to see something falling toward us. It was a featureless ball made of common metal. I looked closer at it and saw a crack appear in the smooth surface. Something shot out of it and collided with my forehead with enough force to cause me to fall back. I sat up, wondering what hit me, and caught my reflection in the still mostly whole sphere. What looked like an oval medallion, flat grey in color, was magged to my helmet, just above my visor. It began to glow red and five red bars shot out and hovered, securely magged, to the sides and above my helmet. I tried to pull it off but it was magged too well. The sphere in front of me opened in half and a second system magged itself to my chest and a beacon on it shone red also.

Just as I wondered what was going on, the feeling of imminent doom made my body go cold and I looked up at the top of the tower. The voice of the lord of the city filled it and said, "You are now under my control."

Immediately, the two magged devices that had come from the sphere became active and took control of me. They changed my appearance to have the same markings, in the same areas, as a black bone dragon would. I tried resisting, but was then forced to transform into a half-dragon. I was commanded to return to him and shot past my dragon and out of the tower with the warrior dragons in tow. My dragon soon left the tower after us, but couldn't keep up, despair weighing him down, and returned to my friend's house.

When I came to his tower, I transformed back into a complete human and bowed to him, showing that I was fully under his control. He laughed with the success of my capture.

Internally I struggled against the draconium but it seeped slowly through my body, making the changes permanent.

I wished that the dragon booster would come, but I had little hope and fell into despair quickly. My mind became dormant and was only aware of my body's actions and senses as if it were watching a TV show. Mind-numbing trance-like state.


	2. Chapter 1: Golden Hopes

I was running "errands" for my master when I felt a strong gold energy. I reported it and was immediately told to finish the job quickly because I had about one minute left, and then run for it. I did as I was told, not that I had a choice, and ran to an alley and followed the directions that had been drilled in to me.

But then the signal cut out on my link. I kept running, but the gold energy grew closer. Panicked, I switched to dragon speed and I felt the energy fall behind. I calmed down, but my signal still hadn't returned. At a normal pace, so I wouldn't attract the attention of whatever had been following me, I returned.

My master was pleased that I had not been caught. But I wasn't so lucky next time.

My signal cut out when I was returning for another errand. Quickly after, I felt the gold energy. I had no commands to go a specific direction, so I ran a dragon speed along the same path as before.

But this had been anticipated and I suddenly sensed a stronger gold energy ahead of me. I turned down a corner with two energies following me and came up to a dead end. I nearly fell backwards from trying to stop so I wouldn't slam into the wall.

I turned and saw Dragon Booster with his gold and black dragon of legend and they had cornered me. There was a noise above me and a small boy activated the charged flash stick he held in his hand. It stunned me and I fell down against the wall, confused and temporarily blinded.

The signal had returned, and my master manually controlled me, since I couldn't do anything by myself.

Somehow I escaped. I found myself back in his palace. The black control gear was being worked on and I was restrained, because it was not currently active, nor magged to me.

Seeing this faint window of opportunity, I struggled out of my bonds and headed through the paths which I had dimly memorized. My lord followed in hot pursuit. I tried to transform into a dragon, but that was provoked by an extra burst of black draconium, and only got partially there. But it was enough and my speed instantly went up.

But my lord was not only following me, but following me on his dragon. I had the faint hope of escaping him when I left the palace. But when I did I was chased down and captured like an animal. A flash stick was activated in front of my face to prevent my struggle long enough to tie me up. But that didn't work so well and they left me in the net. I gave up hope and they took that opportunity to tie me up.

I had not escaped and knew that I would be punished. And when we returned to the palace, I found out exactly how. I was beaten until I was sore everywhere and keyed into my pain, focused on it. Then the improved control gear was magged to me and it caused too much pain for me to bear.

I shut down my mind completely and if the control gear hadn't been on me, I would have collapsed. A small amount of black draconium was injected into my blood so he could be sure that I was under his control completely.

To an outsider, it would have looked like I was a dark warrior princess or something of that nature, because one part of the gear was over my forehead and branched out so that it looked like a crown. A second part was on my chest, it too branching out, with a beacon at the center, like with the headset. Four other parts were on the sides of my body, two long bars and a beacon between them. A beacon was on the outer side of each knee and elbow, and the bars were over the upper and lower sections of my arms and legs. They bent freely with my movements, but could control them also, much more effectively than the previous gear without them.

I had to wear special armor constantly. It was hand made for me and only I could remove it or my master by making me do so. My last hope was the Dragon Booster to save me from my lord, Word Paynn, but he was more likely to attack me now.


	3. Chapter 2: Rescue

I was sitting on the ground in a corner, inactive because I had no orders to follow, when an alarm went off, telling that there was an intruder in the perimeter. The view from a camera showed up and, as I got up and stood behind Word Paynn, I saw the Dragon Booster with a few other dragons running toward the palace, citadel.

He told me to go "meet" them and "send his greetings".

I went out to the entrance and attacked, because I was commanded to do so. But I was subdued and they took me with them further into the citadel. Which was the plan.

When they reached the main room with Paynn in it, he forced my transformation and we became dragon and rider, me the dragon and him the rider. We fought, but were overpowered by their number and Paynn was knocked off.

A small child who had been with them returned with a stolen energy drainer and attempted to throw it to the Dragon Booster, but I caught it and broke it between my jaws. Then I returned to Paynn and reinforcements for us arrived to equal the numbers. They still had more people, but not many. We fought again and were beaten again. Word Pain was again unseated from me and we were again beaten.

But one of the people had an energy drainer and attempted to hit the Dragon Booster's dragon with it, but they could not aim and hit me instead.

As it hit me I stumbled and looked at the person. My look filled him with fear, and he clutched the device tightly. I tried to pull it off, but I was already weak from the fight and transformed back to human form. I staggered as I lost balance, and then fell as my energy continued to drain away. Another rider punched the man holding the drainer and he let go, which stopped the device. It withdrew and the drainer head returned to the main part of the device.

But so much energy had been taken that, as I tried to stand up, my strength failed all together and I passed out, much to the anger of Word Paynn. He grabbed the controller for my gear and attempted to make me rise, but nothing happened, because my energy was gone. I wasn't even conscious.

The Dragon Booster walked over to me and picked me up and his dragon magged me into the saddle behind him. He then walked over to Word Paynn and took the controller for the gear, then walked out with his friends, my unconscious form in his saddle right behind him. The worst place to be if I had gained consciousness during the ride, but I did not.

My limp body was taken to an old, burnt out dragon stable. The stable had belonged to the father of the small boy and his brother, who happened to be the Dragon Booster, though I did not know this.

They demagged the black control gear and threw it down into the abandoned city far below.


	4. Chapter 3: Revealed

When I woke up, I was in a bed. A loud horn had woken me up. It announced the finish of a race. Shortly after, the crew returned to their tent and found me on the cot they had set up.

I had my back against the wall and my knees were curled up to my chest, with my arms wrapped around them. My head was lowered down onto my knees. None of my armor had been removed, but the gear had.

My mind would have imagined my body to be in this position, unaware, blocking out everything, so I didn't know that the control gear had been removed or that the crew had returned, but assumed that I was still under Word Paynn's control and off doing something for him.

My consciousness would be curled up in a little ball at the back of my mind. But when a hand touched me on the shoulder I looked up in surprise. It was the people who had taken me, though I didn't know I had been taken until a few minutes later. They were all there, except the Dragon Booster, and someone I didn't recognize was there with them.

I looked around at them all, and then looked down at my hand, slowly coming to the realization that I had control over myself again. I looked down at my chest, no control gear. I felt my helmet that was over the area of my forehead, no control gear. At my arms and legs, still no control gear.

"What's he doing?" the little boy asked.

I was flat-chested and, in my armor, probably looked like a boy.

The girl said, "Remember that control gear we took off him a few days ago? That gear has been on him for a very long time and he had probably gotten used to it. Now that he finds he can control himself again, it must be unusual."

I couldn't speak. I was so overjoyed. "I'm finally free? Or is this just another dream?"

"You're free," the unfamiliar person said. His shirt was charred on one side and I wondered what had happened and why he still wore it. It looked familiar, though.

He went on to say, "You're not under Word Paynn's control anymore."

"I'm…not…under his control. The gear…is gone." I was finding it difficult to absorb the situation. Then I remembered why his shirt looked so familiar. It was the shirt of a dragon breeder that I enjoyed to work for before I was captured by Word Paynn and had black draconium injected into me to test my reactions to it.

"That shirt. It belonged to him. There really was a fire, wasn't there? The stables are…are…" My head fell back onto my knees in sadness.

The little boy climbed up onto the cot and looked at what little he could see of my face. There were tears dropping onto my legs that came from beneath my visor.

All the rumors had been true. He was gone. "He was so kind," I sobbed.

The little boy said, "You knew our father?"

This brought me back to reality. I uncurled my legs and put my feet on the ground. "Yes. I did." I wiped the tears from my face. "I am sorry that he is gone."

"You knew our father?" the older son repeated. He was the one wearing the charred shirt.

"Yes," I repeated. I realized that I was talked to Artha Penn, whom his father had told me about. I could not remember the younger son's name.

"Artha Penn. That's your name, isn't it?"

"How do you….?" He was surprised.

"He spoke of you." Then I paused for a second, the thoughts of mourning replaced by those of hatred of Word Paynn.

"Word Paynn, I will get revenge for what you did," I growled. Then I took a deep breath to calm myself. "So, who are you?" I asked, looking at the girl and other guy who were standing behind Artha.

"Parmon Shaun," the guy said.

"Kitt," the girl volunteered. "Who are you?" Kitt asked.

"I'm…Invalta."

"Well, Invalta, could you please take off your helmet so we can see your face?" "My-oh-yeah! Of course!" I removed my helmet. I had short purple hair, only about inch long and red eyes, thanks to the black draconium. A black-purple streak came up from the side of my neck and ended just below my left eye, also thanks to the black draconium.

I blinked for my eyes to adjust to the sudden difference in light. "It feels good to have that off," I said as I ran my fingers through my hair.

The rest of my armor was similar to Kitt's, so it looked normal, except mine was black.

They stared at me. "You're a girl," Parmon said, surprised.

Everyone had thought I was a guy. "Yes, I'm a girl. You can't tell when I'm wearing this though, can you?" I indicated my clothes and laughed.

I wasn't positive, but I think the reason for me having to wear this was in the beginning of when the black draconium tests started. It acted like a shield or barrier to ensure that I had full exposure or to protect everyone else from exposure or something.

What ever it had been for, it was securely attached and no one was ever able to remove it. I wondered if I could.

Artha was thinking similar thoughts. They had tried to remove my helmet so I would be more comfortable, but couldn't.


	5. Chapter 4: Dragon Snacks and Statues

My stomach growled. "I'm hungry," I stated, looking down at my stomach, then at the small boy who was trying to conceal his laughter. "D'you have any dragon snacks?"

Artha gave me a weird look, and then tossed me one of Beau's favorite candy bars that he happened to have in his pocket. He tossed on to Beau also. "You like those?" he asked as I bit off a corner.

"Yeah, they're good. Why?" I replied as I chewed.

"Well, it's dragon food."

I swallowed. "Because of stupid Paynn, I'm part dragon. Your friends can tell you. They were there when Dragon Booster rescued me." I took another bite and finished off the candy bar, unable to resist my hunger. "Besides, they made me eat dragon food whether I wanted to or not. You get used to it. It's not that bad. That was probably the best food I've had in months."

They just looked at me.

"What?"

"What was the last time you had people food?" the small boy questioned.

"Um. . ." I had no idea. "I can't remember, exactly. A few months probably…"

I suddenly remembered something from when I was first subject to the control gear. Or just before, really. I had been trying to go to the person who I believed could help me. Then the wraith dragons had appeared and altered my course.

My expression was noted and Artha said, "What is it?"

"I need to ask him!" was all I said as I ran out of the tent while putting my helmet back on.

I took to the alleys, since I knew them so well, and found the fastest past I could to the abandoned city. Once there, I followed the course I had taken previously, but went around the tower and continued beyond it.

I would my way through pathways I had learned from exploration and came to a door with no distinguishable features. I banged on the door. "Dragon priest! Dragon priest! Are you there? I need your help! Dragon priest!"

I pushed the door open when it did not open for me and jumped down the tunnel.

I landed in a large cavern. There was nothing there. After a quick scan of the room, I left and closed the door to hide the room again, then took off.

I stopped at the tower, though. The dark tower that rose high above the ruins. I walked up to its base and touched it, feeling the smooth surface flow under my hand as I walked around, looking up at the top.

Something shiny on the ground nearby caught my attention and I looked down at it. It was the silver orb that had held the control gear. I picked it up then threw it as far as I could. It sailed over the ruins then fell with a final shine.

I walked in the opposite direction that I threw it. I walked with a steady pace toward an old statue of the Dragon Booster. I had found it while exploring one time.

I looked up at the face as I walked up to it. "I would really appreciate some help from you," I said to it, "but you'd probably attack me first after what happened." I sighed.

"This sucks," I said to the statue, but more to just hear myself say it, as I sat on the ground at its base.

I lay down and stared up at the face, hoping to find some shred of comfort.

I didn't find comfort, but I did relax and shut my eyes, letting go of tension and filling my soul with peace. I knew it wouldn't last long, but I was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

Which wasn't long.


	6. Chapter 5: Missing

I didn't hear Artha approach on his dragon, but I did hear Parmon's dragon. When I opened my eyes, I found Beau's head only inches from mine. I didn't move.

"Is she asleep?" I heard the little boy ask.

Beau nudged my head to the side. I was still as peace with myself and didn't want to feeling to leave just yet. I shut my eyes again, letting my mind drift off.

But they weren't willing to leave me where I was and Artha got off Beau. From what he could see of my face, he could tell I was relaxed.

"She's relaxed," he told his friends. Beau, apparently, disapproved and wanted me awake, so he roared in my face.

This brought me roughly back to reality and I went ridged. Then I sat up and put my hand on Beau's nose. I looked at his eye and said, "I was enjoying the quiet."

He forced me with a stream of mag energy, but held me just above the ground. "I'm awake now," I said.

He put me down after Artha said, "You can let her down, Beau."

I addressed Artha. "Why'd you follow me?"

"Beau wanted to know where you were going," he answered.

"Beau? Oh, him." I indicated his dragon.

"When we saw you leaving the tower, we got really curious because that tower is filled with black energy."

"Yeah, I know. Thanks to Word Paynn," I growled. But the fire was currently absent from my soul and I felt sadness. A "why me" sadness. I sighed.

"Let's go," Artha said, and Beau magged me to sit in the saddle behind Artha. I was silent.

Sitting in the saddle behind Artha felt unusual and I could barely sit still. Eventually I asked to get down and I ran along side them, keeping pace to the surprise of everyone.

They made me get back up just before we entered the city, however, because me keeping pace with a dragon would look awkward.

I ended up staying with Artha and had fun playing with his little brother. I ended up sleeping by Beau because that was what I was used to; being treated like a dragon. Eating dragon food and sleeping the way a dragon would. On the ground.

I had dreams about my dragon, nightmares, that Word Paynn had captured him and killed him.

When I woke up, I left to search the city for him. After that day, I hadn't seen him.

I decided to check the stables where we hung out often for him, but he was not there and no one who was working had seen him recently. They told me to check my friend's house, so I headed in that direction.

I took a detour on the way because I didn't want to be around people and happened to pass by Artha's father's burned down stable. I looked at the charred figure of him that had fallen to the ground. I had my fears confirmed as I walked around it and into the stables. They were burnt and some parts had collapsed.

I left soon and continued walking toward my friend's house. The person wasn't really a friend, but everyone else, including him, thought so.

When I arrived, he said he hadn't seen my dragon, and became curious at my appearance. I told him that I was racing and that was a good-enough answer for him.

I got a feeling after I said that, but didn't pay attention to it.

I decided to go to some of our favorite places to hang out and went down to the abandoned city and searched our favorite areas. I didn't find him there.

I went back to the Dragon Booster statue for a minute, but continued on and returned to the city above.

While I was searching, Parmon found me.

"Invalta?" he said, as I ran across the street in front of him.

I stopped and saw him. "Hi Parmon."

"What are doing around here?"

"I'm looking for my dragon. I don't know where he is. I lost him when Paynn captured me."

"Maybe I can help you look? You'll get tired if you keep looking by yourself."

"If you're not busy…" I said with hesitation.

"I've going to meet Artha right now. We can help you look."

"Lead the way." I followed him as he went to Artha.

We talked on the way there.

I told him what my dragon, Kiite, looked like. He was like Beau, but blue and purple. Then I told him about what happened to separate us. There was a moment of silence after I said, "…and he activated the gear and made me transform and abandon my dragon."

"That's harsh," Parmon said, breaking the silence. Then we joined up with Artha.

"Hi, Parm," he said. Then I stepped up beside Parmon and Artha continued, "So you were with Parm? I was wondering where you had gone."

"Artha, will you help me look for my dragon, Kiite? We were . . . separated."

Because it was obvious that I didn't want to repeat my story, Parmon said, "Word Paynn," to answer the unvoiced question.

"Sure, we'll help you," Artha said.

"Really? Thank you very much."

"No big deal."

"Where should we start?" Parmon asked.

"I haven't checked near the citadel yet," I said.

"Then, we'll start there!"


	7. Chapter 6: Recovery

We headed for Word Paynn's citadel.

I had to hide as we drew near and stayed in the shadows. The others found high places with a bird's eye view of the roads and alleys.

Before we left, Parmon hacked into the signal for my communication headset in my helmet and recoded it to be linked to their system.

"Someone's following you, Invalta," Parmon warned.

I hid in a dead end to ambush my follower.

When his shadow appeared, I crouched, ready to spring. I saw a dragon's head come around the corner and almost pounced, but a familiar feeling held me still. As the dragon came into full view, without a rider in the saddle, I recognized him.

"Kiite!" I said, breaking cover to run toward him.

He was wary of me, not recognizing me. I stopped and understood and took of my helmet. "Kiite!" I yelled again as he recognized my face.

"Invalta! Watch out! Wraith dragons!" When Parmon shouted that warning, Kiite's holographic image faded and the wraith hidden beneath it attacked.

"Paynn!" I put my helmet back on and transformed part way for speed. A race through the alleys proceeded, but the distance steadily increased. Then I hid once out of sight of the wraiths.

"Parmon," I whispered. "How close are they?"

"They're coming around the corner towards you." I twitched.

They came running around and passed me by. A minute later, Parmon said, "Okay, coast is clear. Come meet up with us at the destination."

I was careful to stay in the shadows as I made my way back to the place we had decided to meet up at.

"I think Paynn has him," I said as I approached. "He's using him as bait." I made a flash decision. "I'm going on recon," as said as I suddenly left. They protested, but I went anyway. "It's just recon. I won't try anything. I'll come up with a plan first."

I entered from above the wall and jumped down on the crisscrossing beams and wires. I could see Kiite, forced into submission with black gear. I barely contained myself.

Paynn was taunting him, but I couldn't hear what he was saying. He walked away and left.

A noise high above me distracted me from my target and I looked up. It was Artha and Beau.

"What was that?" I whispered into my headset.

"Is that Kiite?"

"Yes. Paynn just left. I'm going to go for it." I dropped down to the lowest ledge.

"Wait!"

"What? I'm getting Kiite back!" I got as close to him as I could, then jumped down next to him. "Kiite, it's me!" He recognized my voice. "Be quiet, so I can get you out of here." I deactivated the first lock and it fell away. Nothing happened other than that. So I unlocked the other three and jumped on Kiite. "Let's get out of here," I told him.

We ran towards a ledge and jumped up on it. But our escape window narrowed as Paynn walked back in. He saw Kiite missing, and then located us. But he didn't say anything. I got worried when he smiled because he had been expecting me.

I saw Artha up above and headed towards him, with Kiite running as fast as he could. To Paynn's astonishment, we evaded all his traps and escaped. But I searched Kiite as soon as we left and found a tracking device. I took it off and broke it into pieces.

"Paynn didn't try very hard to capture me," I stated, worried. This could be a precursor to several things, but I decided not to think about it. Best not to feed the paranoia and let it die.

That night I stayed with Artha again, eating and sleeping with Beau. The Penns gave me weird looks as I ate and again when I said I would be sleeping on the floor with Beau again.

"Calm down. Its fine."

"It's not normal."

"It is for me."

The argument was dropped there.


	8. Chapter 7: Mortis

The next morning, Beau woke me up. "What?" I demanded, irritated.

He had dragged me across the floor by my foot with his tail. He laughed at me as I stood up. I dusted of my back. I started walked towards the door, but Beau tripped me with his tail. He laughed again as I got of and dusted myself off again.

"What was that for?" I looked at him. He pushed me out the door and right into Artha who was about to walk in.

"I think he wants something," I told him, indicating Beau. "I don't know what, though. Maybe he wants to go somewhere? He dragged me awake this morning and pushed me into you."

"Beau," Artha said, "What do you want?"

Beau proceeded to push us both outside. "I think he wants to go somewhere." He then magged us both into his saddle and took off.

"What is going on?" I asked Artha during the ride.

"I'm not sure. We'll find out soon, though."

We ended up at Penn stables, where Kiite was waiting for us. I jumped off Beau and ran to him.

* * *

In my story, Artha and Lance don't live in the stables. I wrote this fanfic a long time ago and didn't know as much about Dragon Booster as I do now. Don't kill me for it.

* * *

"So this is where you went. Why are we here, anyway?" Kiite led me inside and Artha and Beau followed.

This was the first time Artha saw Kiite full in the sunlight. "He was raised here! That's why I recognize him!"

"Who? OH, Kiite? Yeah, your father raised him."

Kiite led me inside and to a room that had no special features to distinguish it. Kiite wanted me to do something with one of the walls, but I didn't know what.

"Kiite, it's a wall. What do you want me to do with it?"

Artha didn't know what was going on either. He knew about the wall, but not why Beau brought us here.

Beau and Kiite talked to each other. Artha and I just looked at each other, wondering what exactly they were saying. Then Beau opened the door to the secret elevator and Kiite walked in, taking me with her. Artha and Beau got in behind us.

"Artha, do you know what's going on?" He shook his head. He knew where we were going, but not why. I had no idea.

When the elevator doors opened, Beau and Artha walked out first, and then Kiite pulled me out. The doors shut behind us and we walked down a hallway with dragon priest statues along both sides.

When we came out of the short tunnel, we walked out to a platform and stopped there. I turned around and looked at the tunnel shaped like a dragon's head. "Where are we?" I asked out loud.

Mortis appeared then. He was standing like one of the statues, so we didn't notice him until he moved.

"A . . . dragon priest?" I recognized his clothing. I looked at Kiite, then at Beau, then back to Kiite. "What . . . ?"

Mortis addressed us. "Thank you for coming Invalta and Kiite."

"And he knows my name," I muttered.

"Because of Word Paynn, you have black draconium flowing in you."

"How do you know this?" I asked, perplexed.

"Wait. I shall help you control it, and so shall Dragon Booster." He gave a pointed look to Artha.

"Right now?" he asked. Mortis nodded.

Artha took off a golden star from the amulet around his neck and said "Release the dragon!" and placed it on the wrist band. There was a bright light and I had to shield my eyes. When it faded, Dragon Booster stood before me, with black and gold Beau next to him.

I stared at Artha for a minute, and then looked at Mortis. "Why am I being shown this?"

"Yes, Mortis, please enlighten us," Dragon Booster Artha said. He was as confused as I was, apparently.

"Mortis," I whispered. So that was his name. Mortis the dragon priest.

"Look at each other," was all he said.

So we did that. We looked at each other up and down. I began to notice similarities and looked back and forth, comparing. When I looked closer, I found very few differences other than color and size. I was flat chested, so shape wasn't an issue.

"It's the same," I said. "Our armor is almost exactly the same."

"Correct," Mortis stated.

"That doesn't explain the situation, though it probably helps," I complained.

"Look at your dragons," he continued. We saw how similar they were also. Not in color, but in body structure, shape, size. . .

"Okay, this is strange," I said.

"You are more alike than you think," Mortis said, "and so are your dragons. Go to the abandoned city and look for a hidden door to a cavern. You should find an explanation there."

"I think I know what place you're talking about," I said, remembering where I had first looked for the dragon priest.

"One last thing," Mortis said. "You must combine your abilities to see."

"Are we done?"

"Yes. You may go now."

Artha returned to normal and we met up with everyone and told them about what Mortis had to say.

"I guess you're part of the team, now, Invalta," Artha said.

"When should we go?" I asked.

"After lunch," his little brother said. His stomach growled.

I sat with Kiite while the others ate lunch because I wasn't hungry. I had a few minutes to think about things by myself and process what had happened.

I know the Dragon Booster. We have some kind of connection, but it is unknown what kind or how. Hopefully we'll find out soon. But I didn't get long to think about things because everyone was done fast and we left right then.


	9. Chapter 8: Wrong Cave

I led them to the hidden door and pushed it open, then dropped down inside. My footsteps echoed inside the room, and so did the sound of everyone dropping down behind me. Parmon slid and landed on his butt. We lit a flashlight and looked around, but didn't see anything.

After scanning the room, I walked to one wall ran my fingers over the surface. A slight gleam caught my eye. I did it again and saw the same thing. One more time, then I called the others over. They watched as something on the wall gleamed briefly, and then faded away. Not light enough to distinguish even with the flashlight.

Then Artha said, "Remember what Mortis said? Maybe we have to run both of our hands over it at the same time."

Artha and I both put one hand on the wall, one next to the other, and ran it over the surface. With the same result as before.

"Maybe you have to be Dragon Booster for it to work," Kitt suggested. So Artha became Dragon Booster.

I put my hand on the wall and when Artha put his hand over mine, a square of text lit up brightly. Parmon took a picture of it when we stepped away from the wall and it faded almost immediately.

"Did you get it?" Artha asked Parmon.

Parmon looked at the picture he had just taken and it showed up on the back screen. The text was there, bright as it had shone. Artha was about to remove the amulet and place it back on the talisman around his neck, put Parmon stopped him. "Wait just a minute, Artha."

"What is it Parm?" Artha's little brother asked. Then he saw it. So did Kitt.

"Invalta," Parmon said, "you look like Artha's black draconium version."

"Mortis pointed that out to us," Artha said. "We were surprised too."

"I think we need to leave here," I said. I had just gotten that imminent doom feeling.

Artha took off the amulet and returned to normal and we all left. Everything went smoothly, though I was paranoid for the rest of the day.

We went to Mortis and showed him the picture of the text. We expected it to have some deep meaning, but it turns out that it was just directions on how to get to a closed off area. Mortis didn't find it important and it was dropped.

But I memorized the directions and left with Kiite the next morning.

* * *

Yeah, short, I know. Next chapter coming up. 


	10. Chapter 9: Directions

But Artha's little brother had planned to go too and knew that I was going, so he had made me take him along.

We went down to the same place as before and I went over the first few directions in my head. I said them out loud, mostly to myself, and followed them.

They led to a spot along the wall. I looked up and saw a large crack at the top of the wall. I jumped up and grabbed the edge, then lifted myself up and looked in.

I asked, "Will you hand me the light?" He handed it up to me and I lifted it to see what was in the crack, but it opened up and I could only see darkness. The directions indicated a passage that was here, so I figured this was just the top of the door.

I put my arms through the opening and gripped the edge on the other side. I then braced my feet against the wall beside me and pulled at the rock. One side moved after a moment of pulling, so I shifted to that side and pulled again.

I managed to open the stone door an inch this way, and then I dropped down to the ground again and pulled, using the unmoving wall as a brace. It came open a few more inches, then a few more, then a few more, until it was wide enough to pass through. To make the opening wide enough to allow for the passage of our dragons, I stuck myself between the wall and edge of the door and pushed it open with my feet.

When I felt it wide enough, I slid down to the ground. "That was hard," I panted. "Shall we tell your brother about this?"

"Let's look inside first!" I was curious, so I walked in and beckoned for him to come to. But we came to a ledge and could see nothing beyond it.

"Now there is no where to go. The passage continues, but I would need to see to tell where it begins again. Let's go tell your brother now."

We left, only to find Artha asleep when we got to him. I went back to bed with my dragon and decided to catch a bit more sleep while I could.

A thinking noise woke me up and I went to see what it was. Artha was hanging from the ceiling by one foot.

"How'd you get up there?" I asked. Then Lance, Artha's little brother, showed himself. He was laughing that Artha fell into his trap. Young mischief. I laughed too.

"Good one, Lance!" Then I proceeded to get Artha down. I stood on his bed and untied his ankle, then lowered him slowly to the floor. "Now that you have him awake," I said to Lance as I jumped down off Artha's bed, "do you want to tell him, or should I?"

Artha looked questioning at me. "What did you do?" he asked, suspicious.

"Remember the directions. . ." I began.

"We went there and Invalta found a door and opened it and it led into a big room with a ledge and we want to know where it leads. Will you come with us?

* * *

Wow. Another short chapter. I need to stop doing that. 


	11. Chapter 10: Switch

This one's longer! I promise!

* * *

We all stood at the edge of the ledge in the cave.

"The passage continues on from here," I said. We looked at Parm to see what he could read.

"It dead ends just beyond this ledge," he said.

I grabbed a light and told Kiite to mag me as far as he could. I met no wall. I lowered the lamp to look below me and saw a stone column that ended just below me.

"Drop me down here," I told Kiite, and the stream of mag energy disappeared, dropping me down onto the column. "There's a big column here," I relayed to everyone. "It's big enough for three dragons to stand on."

I walked to the edge and the light landed on the edge of a second column. Curiosity overcame caution and I backed up, and then took a flying leap to it, landing at a run. A third column was visible and I continued to it. Then I jumped up to the other ledge.

"There used to be a bridge here," I communicated. "Jump across the columns to get here."

They came one at a time, Kiite first, then Artha, next Kit, after her Lance, and last came Parmon. Each on their dragons.

I got back up on Kiite and we all walked forward. The tunnel was luminescent so I turned the lamp off.

At the end of the tunnel was a bright room with colorful walls. The walls rose high, but the ceiling rose higher.

I asked Kiite to lift me up and I looked over the edge of a wall. "It's a maze," I said as I looked above.

But a force pushed me back down. None of us could regain that perspective and Artha got Mortis on a vid screen.

"We followed the directions on that wall and found a labyrinth," Artha said.

I got that ominous feeling that something bad was about to happen and walked back to the ledge.

Parmon asked where I was going and I said, "I'll be right back."

When I reached the ledge I turned the lamp on and saw the last column. I saw it sink down into oblivion with a grating sound.

"Scales," I muttered and ran back to the group. "Our path of entry has been closed off," I said.

Mortis paused in mid-sentence. The vid screen flickered and Mortis only had time to say "Stay together," before it shut off. Artha tried to reconnect but was unsuccessful.

A message flickered to light on the wall. "Work together and stay together," is what it said.

"We've got no choice now," Artha said. "Let's go." We walked in.

* * *

I bet you think this is the end! As much as I would like to torture you all with a cliffhanger, I promised this chapter would be longer, so here you go.

* * *

The walls were red, blue, green, gold, and black. Each segment was a different color.

We walked through, staying to the left, but nothing eventful happened. I began to worry.

Then my paranoia-aided hearing picked up a grating sound, very low, behind us. I turned around and looked, but saw nothing different. I went back and saw our pathway closed off beyond the previous turn.

The others came to look. "Uh-oh," was Parmon's reaction.

Something else caught my attention and I walked over to a black segment of wall. There had been a pulse of energy and I looked closely at the wall. At first I couldn't see anything, but then something nearly unnoticeable radiated out of a spot in the center of the black segment of wall.

I put my hand to the wall and could feel the nearly imperceptible pulses radiating from the center. Then there was another large pulse like the one that had caught my attention. Something happened then, but I'm not sure what. Then I was pulled through the wall. I gave a gasp of surprise.

When whatever had pulled on me let go, I was in a very dark place.

I looked all around me but could see nothing distinguishing among the darkness. I knelt on the floor and focused my attention there because it was solid.

A window opened up where I stood and below me I saw everyone gathered around my body, which hadn't moved. I concentrated further, trying to return to my body.

There was a flash of white and I was back, facing the wall. But something was different. The feeling was familiar. I realized that my hand wasn't where it had been on the wall. I looked around while the feeling kept nagging at me.

Then an undirected haunting suspicion filled me, but only for a second, because when I looked down, I saw my two front dragon feet.

* * *

BECAUSE-I-FEEL-LIKE-IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* * *

"What!?" I shouted out in further surprise. It came out in dragon speech.

Beau said something. I realized that I was completely dragon and could understand him.

I turned around and looked at him. "What was that?" I asked.

He repeated, "There was a white flash and now you are a dragon," he told me.

I was very confused. Only Paynn had been able to turn me into a dragon and that was with a burst of black draconium energy, usually from the control gear.

There was another flash of light, but this time everything appeared normal.

"Now what?" I looked around and noticed a saddle on the ground. "What is that?"

A person stood up behind it. He looked familiar.

"Me!? Wait, that can't be me. . ."

I saw that the boy had different clothes on, he was smaller than me, his hair was longer and dark brown and his eyes were an icy combination of blue and silver. I remembered that that was what I used to look like.

"You look like . . . who I used to be, but boy version. Who are you?"

"Who's who?" Beau asked.

"Him. He looks like me, but I'm me." I looked at Beau.

Then I noticed Artha swaying in his saddle.

"Beau, what's wrong with Artha?"

"I'm fine," he said. But it had been Beau who said it.

"Artha?"

"What?" Again, it was Beau who spoke.

"I think you are in Beau's body, Artha."

"I'm in Beau's body?" He laughed.

"Look down," I told him. He did and saw Beau's front feet, not his own with Beau underneath him.

"Parmon, Kitt, Lance." I called out to everyone. "You okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine," "All here," and "What happened?" was what answered me. It was all the dragons who spoke, not the riders.

"Just so you know, we switched bodies with our dragons," Artha told everyone.

The dragons had recovered by now and were looking at themselves, figuring out the same thing we had. Then I looked at the boy and extra saddle.

"He must be Kiite," I muttered to myself.

"But that doesn't look like you," Parmon said.

"That's what I used to look like. Before . . . you know." I magged the saddle on and then Kiite into it.

Now that everyone knows what happened, or at least what the result was, we continued on.

* * *

AAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDD…………….

* * *

I still get my cliffhanger!!!!!!

That's all for now. More chapters in a few days. If you review, I'll post sooner. Or would you rather wait a few more weeks? Or I'll give you more inappropriately short chapters.

Review!!

Oh, yeah. I was too lazy to add this before:

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but my fanfiction and the original characters I put in them.


	12. Chapter 11: Dreams

Everyone else had to get used to walking on four legs, but I was already used to it. Thanks to Paynn.

Mortis suddenly appeared on a vid-screen at Artha-Beau's wrist. He wanted to know what was going on. Artha-Beau explained.

I couldn't exactly understand the words they spoke, even though I knew them, but I understood the relative meaning of what was said. All we were told to do was get to the end of the maze because we will return to normal once there.

It took a while following that order but we got to the end eventually.

There was a short hallway with another wall, this one gold. Artha-Beau jumped down from the saddle and touched the wall as I had. Nothing happened. It was pulsing like the other wall had.

Beau-Artha said to become Dragon Booster, so he did. When he touched the wall this time, there was a flash of light.

I was in the black abyss again, but this time Dragon Booster was with me. I told him to concentrate on the floor and we both opened up windows. Artha returned to his body and I returned to mine.

I was human again, not a dragon, not with a dragon's body, anyway.

We told Mortis we had made it through and he told us to continue on. The path should lead out.

We went through a tunnel that twisted and turned, but did not branch off and eventually came back up to the abandoned city.

We immediately returned to Mortis after that and told him about everything that happened in more detail. After that we had a small meal then went to bed, because it was night.

I was sleeping in the corner in a sitting position and Kiite was in front of me. Artha and Beau were near the opposite wall. I was having a dream where I was free, but fighting Word Paynn and my doppelganger. I had almost won, but he had called in the doppelganger and now they were winning.

In reality, my right hand was twitching, oscillating between relaxed and tense, and I was making a snarling noise.

In my dream I was growling because I had been cornered. Then I found myself pinned to a wall and couldn't move.

I struggled weakly in reality. I had woken up Kiite and he was trying to wake me up from my dream.

I shut my eyes for a minute, trying to wake up because I had realized that I was dreaming, but when I opened them nothing had changed. No, my doppelganger was gone.

A Word Paynn was holding the black control gear and coming nearer. I tried to back away and managed to escape my bonds. I had escaped Kiite in reality.

But I was immediately restrained again and this time Kiite managed to wake me up. I relaxed once I realized that I wasn't dreaming and Kiite got off me. He had pinned me to the floor.

I looked over at Artha and Beau. They hadn't waked up.

We went back to the corner we had been sleeping in and I leaned up against Kiite for comfort. I couldn't get to sleep for two hours, but eventually passed out. My sleep was disturbed with shadows and I was tired when I woke up and kept yawning throughout the day.

After being questioned, I explained that I had a nightmare about Word Paynn.

I had the dream again and again, every time with Kiite waking me up. The dream did progress, however, until I would only wake just before the control gear was put on me.

One night I told Kiite to only restrain me, not to wake me up, so I could finish the dream and get good rest again.

The dream went as normal, but I knew exactly what would happen until just before the control gear was put on. When it finally came to that part, I watched and waited. It was attached and . . . nothing happened.

In the dream, my restraint vanish, though Kiite still held me against the floor in reality. I could still move freely. I looked down at the section that was over my chest and a horrible feeling appeared in the pit of my stomach. The gear wasn't active.

I looked up but couldn't find Word Paynn. Then everything vanished and I was at the tower again.

"Uh oh," I gulped. I looked around and saw a group of dragons running in my direction. And they were chasing me. I was frozen.

The other me stopped just feet away and I watched everything happen from an outside view. After the other me had turned into a dragon and left with everyone else, I realized that the dream hadn't ended.

I walked towards the tower and looked up at it. I could feel its energy. I put my hand up against it because I was strangely drawn to it and my hand went straight through.

I withdrew it in alarm, but finding it still intact, I reached in again. Then I walked through and there was a blinding light and . . . I woke up.

I looked at Kiite standing over me. "You can get off me now," I told him. He did. Then I noticed that Artha and Beau were awake and watching us.

"Well?' he asked. "There's something at the tower. Or . . . in it. In the dream I walked into the tower. There was this light and then I woke up." I leaned against the wall in a sitting position. "What could be there?" I said to myself in an undertone. Artha didn't know that I spoke. "Well, maybe I'll be able to get some sleep now." I lay down and Kiite did the same next to me. I was between him and the wall.

When I woke up I could see the sunlight but it felt like I had only been asleep for a few minutes. Kiite was already awake.

"Ready to go?" I asked him. I stood up and stretched. I didn't see Artha anywhere. "I wonder where he went. Oh well." I jumped up on Kiite. "Let's go."

We left and went all the way to the tower. I got off Kiite and walked to the base. I put my hand up against it and met the solid base of the tower. I pushed on it, but nothing happened. So I felt around the base of the tower.

All the way around, from waist height to head height. I found the activation switch right next to where I had started. It was a block that went into the tower when I touched it. That opened a door. It was pitch dark. I went in and the door slammed shut. Then something held me immobile and I felt my feet leave the ground.

Suddenly I could feel the Black draconium flowing through me. Then the tower began to steadily add more. Slowly more and more came. At least the flow wasn't erratic, I thought, like it was with Word Paynn. The flow diminished after a minute, then stopped altogether.

"What could be happening to me?"

Then I felt a door open, unlocked by the additional black draconium from the tower, and I felt my body begin to change. I was becoming a dragon once again. I was released and felt myself on the ground, standing on four feet.

I felt in my mind for that door and found it easily. I went through it and became human.

Then a bright light appeared somewhere behind me. There was another door. I walked through it and came out beside Kiite. The door shut immediately.

It took a minute for my eyes to adjust. When they had focused I saw Kiite. Behind him I saw Artha and Beau with everyone else.

"Hi everyone!" I waved at them. Then I felt my knees go weak and I lost my balance. Kiite supported me with his tail. Then I passed out.


	13. Chapter 12: Welcome

When I woke up I was night. I looked around. No, it wasn't night.

Then I heard a voice behind me. "How are you feeling?"

It took me a minute to figure out who it was who had spoken. Then I remembered. It was Mortis, the dragon priest.

"Alright, I think. Nothing seems to be wrong." I stood. I looked around. It was only Mortis and me. No one else was here. "Why am I here?" I asked him.

"I asked Artha to leave you here when he came earlier and told me about what had happened. If you are ready, could you please tell me what happened while you were in the tower?"

"Okay," I said, unsure. Then I told him everything, as best I could.

"Basically, the tower gave you the ability and then showed you how to switch from human to dragon form?" Mortis was about to speak again when everyone arrived from the elevator.

"Hi," I said.

Kiite ran up to me and knocked me over. I thought he was mad at me at first but I realized he had been worried. I got up off the ground with difficulty.

"I'm okay, Kiite," I reassured him. I heard the sound of small feet running and Lance slammed into me. It was a hug with momentum. I staggered. "Were you really that worried about me?"

Everyone else walked over. "We're your friends! Of course we were!" Kitt said. I smiled.

"So, what happened?" Parmon asked.

"Well . . ." I began. I retold my story.

Parmon said the exact same thing that Mortis had said before.

"Can you show us? Can you show us?" Lance asked, excited.

I looked at Mortis. He nodded. I stepped back from them and found the door easily. When I opened my eyes again I was a dragon.

Mortis showed no expression whatsoever. I changed back to normal.

"You should dragon race! You'd be totally drac!" was what Lance had to say.

"Kiite hates doing those races."

"No, as a dragon!"

"With who as a rider? You?"

"Why exactly were we supposed to leave her here?" Artha was asking Mortis.

"It was incase anything happened. Obviously nothing did. But to the matter of discussion, a riderless dragon would look suspicious. People might think you were a wraith dragon."

"So who do you suggest be my rider? Everyone here has a dragon already."

"You could have an advertisement. There are advertisements for dragons all the time!"

"Racing dragons?"

"Well, maybe not all the time . . . ."

"So you mean almost never."

"Yeah."

Mortis cut in. "Get on Kiite and transform."

"Why?"

"Because if you put together what happened at the tower and what happened in the maze, Kiite will transform into a human if you are together."

"I suppose it's worth a try." I got on Kiite and transformed. What Mortis said would happen did happen. I was a dragon and Kiite was a human.

He was average height and medium build with golden eyes and short turquoise hair. As a dragon he was blue and green, so it made sense that his hair as a human was a blending of the two colors. His pants and shoes were like Artha's, but black, and his shirt was black and purple.

Mortis spoke again. "Kiite cannot transform unless you are with him. You must be careful."

I transformed back. "I understand," I told him.

My stomach growled. "Can I get something to eat?"

We all left and had dinner. Then I retired to the stables and slept.

Today had been tiring, even though I was unconscious for most of it.

When I woke up, Kiite was not next to me. I went outside to find him and he was with Beau and Artha.

"Good morning," I yawned.

"We have a surprise for you at the racing tent."

"Can I eat breakfast first?"

"Sure." I grabbed something and ate it quickly, then left with Artha, Beau, and Kiite to their racing tent. Everyone else was there. Parmon was hiding something behind him.

"So, what's going on?"

"Well, you're part of our team now, right?"

"Yeah."

"Close your eyes." I did.

There was a sound that came from directly behind me, and then it moved down to Kiite.

"Now switch forms," he said. I complied and wondered what was going on. "You can switch back now," he said. After that, "Now open your eyes."

I didn't see anything different. Then I saw on the side of my leg that there was a golden star. Artha's racing symbol. I got off Kiite and saw the corresponding mark on him, the side of his leg. I also saw a small version of it on his back, in the center between the shoulder blades.

"The star is on your back too," Parmon said. "Now you're officially part of our racing team, no matter what form you're in!"

"Wow. Excellent! Thanks a lot! This is drac! When do I get to register?"

"That's already taken care of," Parmon said.

"Okay. So when is my first race?"

"In two weeks."

"I'm registered as a dragon, right?"

"Yes."


	14. Chapter 13: Attempt

Those two weeks were full of training. It was hard at first, but once I understood the concepts for the techniques, it went easier.

Beau trained me and Artha trained Kiite.

Artha and Beau were racing with me on my first race to show me the ropes. Artha and Beau came in second, with me and Kiite in a close third.

I saw Cain lurking around, but his attention was not focused on me, so I hoped that I was not noticed. A black bone dragon would certainly attract attention. Especially one that was part of the Penn racing team.

But there was no sign that Word Paynn or Moordryd Paynn had noticed.

As a reward, I got to hear about the previous ventures of Dragon Booster. I often added in details from my point of view when I could recall them because they often added extra humor. Knowing Word Paynn's reaction after he failed to capture Beau was always amusing.

Then came my second race, along with more training, though not so much. Kitt would be in this one, but so would Cain. I knew that I had finally been noticed, or would be within minutes, and would have to exercise caution.

I paced myself, even though I was forced near the back, because I needed energy to dodge Cain's attempts to make me lose. I managed to avoid him, but never my much.

I ended up fourth, with help from Kitt, and Cain was last.

After the race, we all had a meeting.

"It was bound to happen," was what I had to say.

The others agreed. We were all still unhappy because of it, however.

I underwent training once again. So did everyone else. I spent long periods of time in dragon form.

After two more races of eluding Moordryd, Cain, and everyone else Word sent after me, they decided to attempt an ambush. But they severely underestimated me. From the races and training I had increased my stamina and skills even more.

I was in dragon form when they tried it. They didn't know who I was, only that I was a black boned dragon and Word Paynn wanted dragons like me under his control.

Kiite was already with Artha, but I was walking back to the stables after granting a boon for Lance. It wasn't important and I had already forgotten what it was, my mind on other things. So Cain caught me unexpected and stunned me with a flash stick before I had time to react.

I was forced into a trailer and it took off faster than you could say "Dragon Booster." The trailer's back door couldn't be opened, whether dragon or not, so I went for the top hatch. I tried it with my tail to see if it was open. It was, so I lifted it open all the way, then transformed and jumped up through it.

I made a face at Cain and his assistants, and then jumped of.

I used the communication line in my helmet and told Lance I was okay and had escaped. "I'm going to follow the trailer," I told him. "I want to see their reaction when I'm not in there." So I followed them all the way back to the citadel and in to a dragon pen.

I had to stifle my laughter as I watched their astonished reactions to find me gone and Word Paynn's fury. I left before my laughter could escape my mouth and went back to the stables and told Artha about what happened. They thought it was funny.


	15. Chapter 14: Control

I was in dragon form and lying with my back and the back against the back of the Dragon Booster.

Being near the statue had a calming effect on me for some reason. I had been dealing with Paynns a lot lately and it was taking its toll.

I was often irritable, high-strung, paranoid, or any combination of the above. But I had been coming here lately, usually at night because I would fall asleep during meditation, and it soothed me, letting me think rationally and clear my thoughts.

I decided to sleep here only when I really needed it so I wouldn't depend on it as much.

Dealing with the Paynns was easier after that.

A good thing was that even though everything that had happened so far, they still didn't know that I was directly connected with Dragon Booster, though the fact that I was part of the Penn racing team made a connection.

I had a feeling that would soon end.

I stood up, feeling it was time to go back. I had promised Kiite that I'd do something with him today, both of us as humans. It would be like a bonding day, since we could talk about things.

I was thinking about possible activities we could do today when Moordryd appeared in front of me. I stopped cold. I looked around and the wraith dragons appeared, with Cain behind me and a few others at intervals in the semicircle that surrounded me, with a wall segment on my other side.

Moordryd activated a flash stick and the others bound my legs so I couldn't move. Then they suspended me between the wraith dragons. When they turned invisible, I did the same with them. It appeared as Moordryd with Cain and a few others, no one else.

Because I was in dragon form I couldn't contact Artha and couldn't risk exposing myself. They had bound my mouth closed so I would not attract attention.

We proceeded towards Word Paynn's citadel. "Oh, great," were my thoughts. "I had just been thinking something would happen. Will they figure out that I know Dragon Booster, too?"

When we arrived at the citadel, I was taken to a room and immediately restrained with mag pads on the floor. I couldn't move my feet off them. As an added precaution, because they still hadn't figured out how I escaped repeatedly, there was also a railing around me which looked flimsy but turned out to be a miniature force field that surrounded me, above and around. I had absolutely no hope of escape without help.

Because I was under constant watch by someone, I had to wait for that help. I quickly became accustomed to the measly meals that had been fed to me before and were fed to me again. Word Paynn couldn't afford to lose his newly acquired black bone dragon from starvation, could he?

Help came a week later. Apparently it had been easy to locate me, but hard to plan my escape.

It started as a security breach in a completely different area, nowhere near where I was being held.

Then Kitt and Parmon arrived. Kitt took care of the two guards in the room and Parmon went to work on the force field. He shut it off after a few minutes, and then shut off the mag pats that held my feet against the floor. We left and met up with Lance, who had been keeping watch.

"Dragon Booster is providing a distraction," Kitt answered my unvoiced question. "Paynn had been expecting him, so we need to provide a little extra help," she continued.

We went to where Artha was. He had been holding his own until Word Paynn called wraiths.

Just before we got to him Parmon said "Roar, Invalta. It'll provide enough of a distraction."

A second before we entered the area with Dragon Booster, I gave a nice loud roar. Everyone looked in our direction as we came in, except for Dragon Booster, who knocked the device controlling the wraith dragons out of Word's hand. It smashed against the wall, broken, and the wraith dragons left. We did too.

When we told Mortis of it, he told me not to return to the statue. After everyone else returned to the main area of the stables, I stayed down here and got permission from him to meditate in his secret cave.

I would sit on one of the broken sections that radiated from the center platform or in the center. But I didn't have the opportunity for a while.

I was getting twitchy. I was in human form with Artha and Parmon. They were trying to calm me down, ease my nerves, by walking around the city and talking about nothing in particular, avoiding the subject of The Dragon Booster and anything related of course.

But I was paranoid that I was being watched. My paranoia attracted Word Paynn's attention, and he ended up spying on me. He quickly recognized me because I was in human form and had been keeping a low profile, only going out in public as a dragon.

Word Paynn ordered my capture and Moordryd came to carry out the command. So, as I scoped out the surrounding area again, I saw the green restraint device and flipped out of Kiite's saddle and above it.

They tried again, but I jumped away into an alley. Moordryd followed me and ignored the others in pursuit.

I turned into a narrower alley and the walls were close enough for me to cross jump up them. I lost track of Moordryd, and was on the roof. Wraith dragons appeared around me and Moordryd appeared off to one side. I made a break for the edge and slid under one of the dragons, then jumped over and back into the alley.

At a dead end, I was caught between Moordryd and the back wall. I cross jumped up to the roof again, but there were Wraith dragons up there and that route was cut off from me, so I altered my course and went over Moordryd, cross jumping along the walls. I ended up cross jumping over Dragon Booster as he came around a corner.

I switched to a different alley and went up to the roof. There weren't any Wraiths up here. I hid in a shadowy alcove and attempted to calm myself down, but couldn't because I wasn't at the Dragon Booster statue or in Mortis's cave.

I headed for the Dragon Booster statue. Artha caught me before I could even leave the city.

"What are you doing?" he asked, concerned.

"I'm l-losing c-c-control," I stuttered through my madness. I tried to resist mag blasting him, but the energy was already evident by the glowing that outlined my figure. When I couldn't hold it back, I managed to divert the blast off to the side, but it barely missed Dragon Booster.

Why didn't I have control?

I fled, but he and Beau caught up to me. "What are you doing? Get away from m-me." I sped up.

"Hey!" he yelled at me. I looked back. There was a flash. I stumbled into a wall, suddenly blinded. That knocked me back from the edge enough, but I quickly went on running, this time toward Mortis. I took the fastest route possible. No one followed me, though everyone attempted to.

I went down into Mortis's cave. I relaxed a little bit, but not enough. I took off my helmet and saw my reflection.

The whites of my eyes had become black and both irises and pupils were a glowing red. I sat in the center of the platform and stared out ahead. I didn't notice when Dragon Booster came in.

Mortis was looking at me and Artha ran to see what was wrong with me. When he was in front of me it became obvious. They started talking. Then the others came in, also shocked by my condition.

I noticed nothing. I was slowly regaining control, but it took all of my attention. This place was what was helping. I couldn't do it without being here. Or at the statue.

Sometime, everyone left. Mortis kept watch over me. They returned some time later.

The pieces began to fall back together. When everything back under my control, my eyes faded and returned to normal. Then I passed out.

A pounding headache woke me up. I sat up and my eyes focused, which didn't take long because of the dim lighting. I put my head in my hands. "What a headache," was my waking statement.

Parmon, who was nearby, turned around. "You're awake!" The others, who had been talking quietly, turned around too.

"Not so loud," I muttered. Lance didn't hear me.

"Invalta! You're okay!"

"Not so loud," I repeated, this time loud enough for everyone to hear. I looked around and saw that I was in Penn stables. "What happened? How'd I get here?" I remembered losing control and running from Moordryd, but after that, just sound and unconnected images, one of Dragon Booster, others of areas of the city.

"We need to talk to Mortis. Now." It was Artha who had spoken.

I tried to stand up, but almost collapsed on the floor. I fell against the wall for support. Artha put one of my arms around his shoulder and Parmon came to support the other.

With their help, I made it down to Mortis. That small trip exhausted me, but at least my headache was starting to go away. He walked up to me when we stepped out of the elevator.

"Hi, Mortis," I smiled weakly.

"Do you know what happened?" he asked.

"There was Moordryd and running . . . ."

"Anything else?"

"There was this flash. Everything else is a blank."

"The flash stick," Artha supplied as the reason for the flash.

"You nearly lost control of yourself," Mortis said.

"What?"

An explanation followed, as well as possible causes for it. The fact that the black draconium was not a natural part of me and that it was black draconium were possible reasons.

"I will look for something to help you," Mortis told me.

"Thank you, Mortis." I had been standing without support for a while, but nearly fell when I tried walking back to the elevator. Parmon, who was nearest, caught me before I hit the ground.

"Thanks, Parmon," I smiled. We walked back to the stables. He sat me down against the wall next to Kiite. I yawned. "I'm going to sleep, now." I fell to the side against Kiite and landed on his front leg, my upper body between his head and the wall. Instantly I was asleep.

"She just fell asleep," I heard Parmon say before I drifted off completely.

When I woke up I felt much better. Most of my energy was back and I wasn't insane.


	16. Chapter 15: Broken

For the next few weeks, it seemed like my entire existence was devoted to irritating Moordryd Paynn. I haunted him. By doing this, I was also bugging Word. All the better, I thought.

Then the race came. It was my first race in human form.

I had forgotten about the loss of control, but I could feel it as the countdown was started. Even worse, the only people I recognized who were racing were Moordryd, Cain, and two of their allies. The other racer was unfamiliar. She noticed me looking at her and flashed the dragon eye symbol quickly.

My gut twisted. Everyone in the race worked for Word Paynn. I'm doomed.

The race began. We went into a tunnel, and then came to a crossroads. Cain was tailing me. We came back out onto the track. I was expecting something to happen, but nothing did. My unease grew. There was another tunnel, another cross roads up ahead. They tried to push me to the one on the far side, but Kiite managed to get into the one next to it. There was no one else in the tunnel.

I realized that I had fallen into Word's trap when the Wraiths appeared blocking the road ahead and behind. They came in a bit closer, and then stopped. They didn't do anything.

Then the floor opened up beneath us and we fell into a truck, which was immediately shut. I got off Kiite and paced along one wall. I had to escape. The fear only made my grip loosen further. I was losing control again.

We were forced inside and taken to cells. We were separated of course. I paced my cell, restless.

Slowly over the next day the process became further along. The second day I was taken out of my cell and bound. I was personally escorted to Word by Moordryd himself.

Where Word was, there was a large ring, like a pen for an animal. The floor inside the circle was lit up. There was a railing around it. Around the railing were the racks where gear was held. Upon it was the familiar black control gear. Oh no.

I gripped the railing when it came within reach, trying not to be pushed into that ring. Then the twitching started. I lost my grip and was forced into the ring. Once there, I was pulled to the center and then magged into position, unable to move a muscle.

The fear put me on edge of going over.

They tried to mag the gear to me, but the section that was supposed to go over my helmet wouldn't attach.

"Remove her helmet. It's interfering," Word commanded.

"Yes, father," Moordryd complied. He lifted my helmet off from the back overhang. Neither Paynn saw my eyes, which had become black and glowing red, just like last time.

The gear was removed, then all set back in place, including the part that hadn't magged with the last attempt. The control was activated, and that set me over the edge.

I completely lost it. Word saw my eyes and thought he had succeeded, because the effect was similar to the one which bone marks had. He couldn't have been more wrong.

I mag blasted it off me. Pieces broke the railing or smashed against the wall. Word and Moordryd ducked as pieces flew toward them.

Dragon Booster appeared and chaos broke out. Both Paynns fled.

The ring had been deactivated and I could move again. So I attacked what my eyes fell upon first. Dragon Booster.

He had trouble fending me off. Beau had to deal with my mag blasts too. A shout caught my attention. It was Kitt. I went for her.

Beau mag blasted me mid leap and I slammed into the wall and down to the floor. Up in an instant, I was after them again.

Someone threw something at my head. When I looked around to see who it was, there was a flash and I was blinded. Something hit me and I slammed into the wall again. The flash went off again before my eyes could focus. I was blindfolded, and then my helmet was shoved back on my head. I was tied up and taken back to Mortis's cave.

I stayed there, tied up and blindfolded, while Mortis looked for a solution to return me to normal. Something was placed around my neck and soon after my entire body relaxed. My mind went unconscious.

After what seemed like an eternity, something hot touched my wrist. Fire shot up my arm and spread throughout my body. The fire burned something away from my being. Then the sensation disappeared and I drifted into unconsciousness again.

When I woke up, I found myself lying on the floor in the center of the circular platform in Mortis's cave. I sat up and saw what was around my neck. It was Artha's pendant. The star that he used to transform into Dragon Booster was gone.

I was about to take it off when a voice behind me said, "No, you must not remove it yet."

I stopped my hand. "Why not? It belongs to Artha."

Mortis walked into my line of sight. "The process isn't complete. You lost control again and this is how we revived you. We are going to prevent you from losing control again, so you must not remove it. Stay here." Mortis left.

He returned with Dragon Booster. "Stand up," Mortis commanded. I obeyed. "Grasp each other's hands." We did. The golden fire filled me again.

I staggered when Artha let go of my hands. "Now remove the amulet." I gave it back to Artha, who still was Dragon Booster. It disappeared when it touched him.

"You must hurry to the black draconium tower. The unbalance in your body must be mended. Go." I ran out and found Kiite waiting for me in the stables.

"Let's go Kiite," I told him as I jumped up. We ran back to the tower.

I reentered its base and it refilled me with black draconium, pure and not tainted like last time. That had caused me to go insane. The pure draconium and the tainted draconium from Word Paynn produced the effect of insanity that made me lose control.

I then returned to Mortis for an explanation. "So, what exactly happened? Why did I have to go back to the tower?"

"Do you remember a burning sensation?"

"Yeah. Twice."

"When I touched your wrist and when you and Dragon Booster held hands, correct?"

"Yes."

"The black draconium was burned away the first time, but not everything. The second was finishing the process. But because of the sudden removal of the black draconium, your body would have collapsed."

"Collapsed? Why?"

"Because the black draconium had become part of you. So you had to return to the tower to have it replaced."

"And the amulet?"

"You had to wear it because otherwise the gold draconium could not have burned away the black."

"Is that everything?"

"No. You can still lose control because you were not born with black draconium. Now that what Word Paynn did to you is gone, however, you can only lose control under extreme pressure. The black draconium from Word Paynn was tainted. It hindered you greatly."

"So why didn't I lose control at the beginning?"

"Word Paynn had been controlling you then. You couldn't have done anything, be it involuntary or otherwise."

"Oh."

"As long as you stay calm, you cannot be broken. Now, you may want to go see Artha. You should eat something."

"Thank you, Mortis," I nodded as I walked out.

Up in the stables, Kiite was waiting right next to the elevator door, so I didn't see him as I walked out. Beau was on the other side and I didn't notice him either.

Beau tripped me with his tail. I fell to the ground with a thud and my helmet came off. I turned around and picked up my helmet. Kiite was behind me. He used his tail to grab my ankle and lift me partially into the air. Beau grabbed my other ankle and they both lifted me clear of the ground. There were two flashes, one after the other, and I found myself on the ground again. I heard running feet and sat up until my eyes focused again. Then I followed the sound out of the area and saw Lance run around a corner. I snuck to the edge of the wall and looked around the corner. I saw everyone talking to each other.

They hadn't noticed Lance. As soon as I looked, he caught their attention and he showed them something on a camera.

They still hadn't noticed me. I snuck in, and then pounced on Lance. I rolled and came to a stop up against a box, then uncurled and tickled Lance, whom I had pinned against the ground. His uncontrollable laughter rang around the room. I stood up.

"You deserved that one," Artha said. They were all snickering. I looked at the camera.

It was a picture of me with Beau and Kiite holding me upside down in midair with their tails. There was an expression of surprise on my face and my eyes were unfocused. I could hear dragons laughing just outside the room. I laughed at the photo. It was funny.

"I'll get back you for that," I threatened.


	17. Chapter 16: Test

Meditation in Mortis's cave had become habit, even though it wasn't necessary. That's where I currently was.

"Invalta."

"Yes, Mortis?"

"Come with me." I stood up and turned around to look at Mortis. His expression was serious. He turned around and began walking.

I followed him to the training area. "Is there something you want me to train for?"

He didn't say anything. We walked past the obstacles. He took me to the end of the tunnel opened a secret door and led me through. He activated lights which weren't bright but enough to see.

"This is a training course. Do what you can to finish. The end is at the central platform you are so fond of sitting on." He turned around and walked out, closing the door behind him.

I decided not to wait around to see if he was joking and went forward. There was a very thin bridge, no wider than my foot, which went on ahead. I held my arms out for balance and stepped upon it. I used my feet for guidance by tracing the edge with the side of my foot because the lights became extremely dim and it was hard to see. I shut my eyes so they would not betray me.

When I came to the end I opened my eyes and saw a round platform up ahead. The lighting had improved again. I took a few steps back, then took a running leap and landed on the platform, sliding to a stop.

There was a tunnel up ahead with regularly spaced outcroppings that went back and forth from wall to wall. They were to steep for me to be able to stand there and to small to stop upon even if I could stand on them.

Then I saw how close together the tunnel walls were. I smiled. Artha must have told Mortis about the cross jumping.

I took another running leap off the circular platform and landed on the first one in the tunnel. I immediately began to slide down it, though not quickly. I knew I mustn't lose momentum, so I jumped across to the next outcropping. I repeated the move twenty times before I came to the next large platform. It was a steep sloping tunnel that spiraled up. I had to use the small handholds provided.

Once I reached the top, there was another set of outcroppings. I jumped these and came to a ledge after the fifth one.

A ladder cut into the stone led me upward. When the ladder ended, there was no platform above me, just the ceiling. I looked behind me and saw the platform there. I jumped off the wall and landed on the edge.

All the jumping was taking its toll.

The next challenge was a row of columns that were high enough to not want to risk jumping down. I jumped the columns and saw another passage that sloped upward ahead of me. I walked through.

It was long and winding, sloping upward constantly. Without warning it leveled out and I almost tripped over what wasn't there. The passage ended in a circular chamber. There was a column of light in the center.

Seeing nothing else stood out in the room, I walked into the light. The stone beneath my feet disappeared and I expected to fall down to my death. But I was floating down. Fast, but not fast enough to be caused injury when the impact with the ground came.

I came down to the center of the platform in Mortis's cave. He was standing there and had been waiting for me.

"Can you please explain?" I demanded. I was tired.

"One more thing," was all he said. Without warning he tried to swipe my feet out from under me with a staff. I jumped on reflex.

"Will you explain now?"

"Artha told me about your jumping skill."

"And?"

"I tested you to see just how good you were."

"A test?"

"Yes."

"Okay." I shrugged. Better to just accept it in this case. It happened and no amount of complaining was going to change that.

I left and went up to the stables.

"Where were you?" Parmon asked as soon as I stepped out of the elevator.

"What? No hello?"

"Mortis said he was testing you but wouldn't give us details. He said we'd have to ask you. So I am."

"Okay. First, you remember my cross jumping to escape Moordryd, right?"

Artha had told everyone by now. "Yes."

"Well, Mortis wanted to test my skill at jumping."

"But you were gone for so long."

"How long was I gone?"

"About two hours."

"Two hours? Wow, that was longer than I thought. Well, I had to run this course, or jump it. Then he tested me himself."

Parmon opened his mouth again to ask another question.

"No, I won't give you any more details than that." My stomach rumbled. "Time for me to eat something," I smiled. Then I walked past him.

I retrieved some food and sat by Kiite to eat.

The next day passed without anything out of the ordinary occurring.

That night I couldn't sleep so I quietly walked out of the stables and sat against a wall, staring up at the moon. Mortis found me. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"I could say the same to you," was his reply.

"Fine. I couldn't sleep. Is there anything you wanted?"

"Yes, actually. I want to talk to you, but it should wait until Artha and Beau wake up."

"Great. Now I'll stay up all night for sure." I looked away from Mortis and continued staring up at the moon.

When I looked back at him, I found he had disappeared, probably back to his cave. I yawned and returned to my bed mat and fell asleep.

I woke up to, "Looks like you got some sleep after all," from Mortis, who was standing over me. I stood up quickly.

"Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Just, appear or disappear out of nowhere." He just laughed.

I noticed that the others were waking up. "What's going on?" Artha yawned.

"He wants to talk to us," I said, indicating Mortis who was behind me now. "Beau too."

Parmon and Kiite were waking up. "What for?"

"Ask him. I don't know."

We all met down in Mortis's cave soon after.

"Remember when your brother was captured to try and make you give information about Beau?"

"Yes."

"Remember that his captor was under the influence of black gear?"

"Yes."

"And when you took it off and tried to destroy it, it almost captured you, too?"

"Yes."

"How about when you and Beau were wraiths?"

"Yes."

"Also, when Beau drank black draconium?"

"Yes. Where are you going with this?"

"All those times, Word Paynn was controlling someone."

"Yes."

"So why isn't he controlling her? Why can't he?" Mortis indicated me. "Also, why can you transform from dragon to human and back?" He was talking to me now.

"I don't know, Mortis."

"He only controlled you when both methods were put together. Also, draconium is a natural part of you. That's why he couldn't control you that way."

"So, you're saying?"

"You are part dragon."

"I'm part dragon."

"Yes."

"But that's impossible!" Parmon interrupted.

"Apparently not. But how?"

"I don't know the answer to that," Mortis said.

Later, we returned to the stables. The discussion had continued for a while.


	18. Chapter 17: Success

I stood next to Dragon Booster. Wraith Booster would be more appropriate. We both had black control gear on; the most powerful Paynn could produce. Both sets were identical.

Word Paynn walked around us and surveyed his accomplishment. Moordryd stood nearby. Parmon, Kitt, and Lance were hidden high above and stared down in horror.

Word laughed, pleased.

The trio left to report to Mortis. If only Dragon Booster had been captured, he could have broken free of Paynn's hold. So could I, even though the last time I had done so had been when I had lost control. I still could.

But the control gear sets were linked to each other and I prevented Dragon Booster breaking free just as he prevented me.

Thankfully, Beau and Kiite had escaped they had gone for help when we had first been captured.

-Flashback-

"There are three groups," Parmon announced.

I volunteered to go after one, Dragon Booster to go after a second, and everyone else to go after the third and largest group.

I went and found a trailer with three people guarding it as it was taken to the citadel. I was in human form and on the rooftop, assessing the situation.

I heard a scream through the communication line in my helmet.

"Dragon Booster!" Parmon yelled.

"What happed?" I questioned, a little too loudly. I withdrew from the edge as one of the people guarding the trailer looked up at where I had just been.

"I'm not sure," Parmon answered. "Could you check? You're closer to him than we are."

"Sure," I shrugged. I could probably get back to this group in time.

I stood up and was about to take off when someone from behind me said, "You aren't going anywhere."

I spun around and was blinded by a sudden flash, then something heavy, probably the flash stick, came down on my head and I crumpled, instantly unconscious.

When I woke up I was tied up. I looked behind me to see to what I was tied and found Dragon Booster. Our wrists were bound together and a tight cord was wrapped tight around our chests to keep us from moving.

Dragon Booster stirred at my movement and groaned to announce that he was awake.

My head hurt and I suspected he had gotten a beating too.

Then came the control gear. I thought of that even as I fought for self control. My efforts were in vain.

-End Flashback-

"Go get them now, Moordryd," Word commanded. Moordryd left, soon to return with something shining that I couldn't completely see because it was veiled in thin cloth.

Then Word ordered everyone but his son out of the area. Word came forward and lifted the cloth and the glass that covered the object at the same time. A bone mark was revealed, it's color a mixture or black and purple. It hovered above the stand above the stand it had been carried in on.

I struggled and fought for freedom even before Word Paynn commanded me to take it. My terror almost won, so strong it was. Dragon Booster fought also. But the control gear was strengthened with the press of a button and my hand reached forward to take it.

When I gripped it firmly in one hand, energy coursed down my arm and flooded me, then went to Dragon Booster. We screamed simultaneously.

My appearance didn't change at first, but Dragon Booster's did. He became wraith-like.

And then my appearance changed. Spikes appeared coming from my elbows and knees and claws developed on my fingers. My eyes didn't change. I was forced to transform into a dragon and there were spikes on my tail and ridges and purple flames and longer claws and a different purple pattern on my black body.

Under a silent command, Dragon Booster got into my saddle.

"This is even better than having the black and gold dragon," Word said. "I control this!" Then he had the classic evil laugh.

By now Beau and Kiite had found Parmon and the others and they were going back to Mortis. When they got there they said everything as fast as they could with Mortis still able to understand what was being said.

"This is terrible," he said when they finished.

"What do we do? We need a solution to this and fast, before Word starts the war."


	19. Chapter 18: Goodbye

I hate the end, but I couldn't think of anything better. You've been warned.

* * *

"Again, there is nothing that I can do," Mortis said.

Word was on the brink of war. "We are doomed."

Dragon Booster and I were in the under city with dragons rallying to us. We were ready for the first attack on the city, so we went.

But some dragons had not gone to us. Like Beau, for example. And Kiite.

The battle started and some dragons had gotten to me and Dragon Booster. I was standing higher up, claws dug into stone. I fought off the other dragons with ease. They surrounded me, but I still had the advantage.

But then a joined attack by three riders at once knocked Dragon Booster off me. I brought him back up, but in that split second of diversion several dragons had us surrounded.

One pure boned dragon from the green, blue, and red clans and several mixed breeds. Among them was Kiite, a mixed. Directly behind me was Beau.

They all used draconium energy and aimed it above us. It formed an energy sphere then came down on us. Dragon Booster was on top, so he was hit. He was stripped of black draconium and regained self control. I was unaffected.

The rest of the energy passed down over me and formed a ring in the ground. Each pure dragon, and Kiite, touched a claw to the ring and energized it with draconium. It grew and formed a dome over me. I was stripped of all armor and all black draconium. My body became stone. Solid stone. The rock below be became black draconium, pure, harmless, black draconium. It didn't go further than the ring, though. The ring became a quarter red, a quarter green, a quarter blue, and a quarter gold.

All wraith dragons returned to normal and Paynn went into hiding.

I became a monument in the center of the city.

When Artha and his friends returned with Mortis to the Dragon Priest's lair, they discovered a statue made of blended draconium colors. All five were mixed together. The statue was of me. I was formed perfectly and looked identical to my real self. Other than shape, there were no particular features, other than simple armor.

It was as if I was wrapped in the draconium. I was standing straight, relaxed, with my arms hanging at my sides. There was no expression on my face. My eyes were shut. It was as if I was asleep.

At my feet was a depression in the rock. There were five circles with a faint color in each. One was slightly yellow, one red, one blue, one green, and one dark. At the monument in the city they found the corresponding spheres. They returned with them and placed them in the depressions. Each color shone brightly. There was a flash and my body became flesh.

There were swirling patterns that went all over my body, in all five colors. Patterns would blend, intermix, and separate again. My eyes, when I opened them, were a colorless gray. The armor I wore became gray as well.

Then I started walking towards the door. Mortis stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

I said something in the old language of dragons, which Beau understood. He said something to me and I replied. Then I started walking again and left.

I went to the lair of the Dragon Priests, the ones who guard the ancient knowledge.

"Who comes?" one of them said. It was the one in charge.

"The human dragon," I said in dragon speech. The leader understood.

"Step into the stone," he said. "We will guard you."

I raised my forearm. You could see an indentation there. It was shaped like a dragon's paw.

I opened my hand and the corresponding activator appeared. It was the same color as my armor. On the top side was the shape of a human hand over inside the dragon's paw.

"Guarded by the Dragon Priest, father of the Dragon Booster," I said.

He took the key. I walked into the stone. Marks appeared all around it. Hidden within them was a second indentation, the shape of a human hand. It matched the top side of the key.

The Dragon Priests left. They went to where Mortis stayed.

The leader showed the key to Mortis. "You must guard this key to the human dragon."

Then he went to the Platform at the end of the bridge. A circle of light appeared and the key floated down and melted into the stone. Exactly like when the armor of Dragon Booster appeared for Artha in the beginning.

Then the Dragon Priests left and returned to where I was hidden. They then continued to guard me.

* * *

See? It sucks. I wouldn't mind reviews on how to improve--actually, it should just be rewritten--the end.

And something that I only do when I remember (which, sadly, is not often)...

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Dragon Booster TV series.


	20. Chapter N: Preview

Alright, here's a preview of the next story. I finally decided to put this up, and if people like the idea enough, I'll continue with it.

I have come far since the last story was written, so hopefully this won't be so Sue-ish.

* * *

In a city consumed by war, a young Dragon Booster, younger than the last one, ran through the old city hoping no one would attack him since he was dragon-less. The more fragile upper levels of Dragon City had been destroyed by over thirty years of war and the toughened survivors had moved down, some even to the hydrag-infested ruins of the ground level.

* * *

You ask why there is war? Many do. Many years ago, the previous Dragon Booster was said to have succeeded in stopping the fatal occurrence. And he did. Word Paynn was dead, Moordryd and the Shadow Booster finally allied with light, and the city was at peace. For a while. When Artha Penn had long since lost his youth and lay waiting with his last surviving friend Beau, he passed on the gold medallion to his grandson. That was also when the rebellions began. But a black and gold dragon did not rise, and James Nathaniel Penn passed into the ranks of Dragon Priests. He had a son, Artha Draconus Penn, whom he left with his wife because he was always fighting to defend the city and did not want Artha to come to harm. The amulet, given to him by his grandfather the Dragon Booster, was also placed into her care and given to Artha at a young age.

But I digress, for that is a different, though related, tale. Unknown to all, Word had planted the seeds of rebellion carefully before his death. They blossomed nearly eighty years later at a time when Dragon Booster was far too old and weak to stop it. That had grown into war—between the humans and dragons, among the humans, and among the dragons. It is at this time that the story begins.

* * *

Artha finally came to the old temple and darted inside. He had not been pursued. He went further inside and was confronted by three old Dragon Priests, the only guards for this nearly forgotten place.

"Dragon Booster," they bowed and stepped aside to reveal the young boy's target—a large white stone. He gripped a small, similarly-colored amulet of curious shape—a dragon's paw—and approached the stone.


End file.
